Process and apparatus for cutting and folding fabric strips



March 17, 1942. c MARGADANT 2,276,854

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND FOLDING FABRIC STRIPS Filed Oct. 3, 1940 5 Sheets-Sheet l March 17, 1942. c M RG D NT 2,276,854

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND FOLDING FABRIC STRIPS Filed Oct. 3, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 17, 1942. F, c MARGADANT 2,276,854

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND FOLDING FABRIC STRIPS Filed Oct. 3, 1940 I5 Sheets-Sheet 3 a/mmvm, 4/11. 1. dyuf Patented Mar. 17, 1942 PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND FOLDING FABRIC STRIPS Frans Gerard Carel Margadant, Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands, assignor to Stoombandfabriek N. V. van Engelen & Evers, Heeze, Netherlands, a corporation of the Netherlands Application October 3, 1940, Serial No. 359,625 In the Netherlands November 7, 1938 4 Claims.

The invention relates to a process and apparatus for mechanically treating a woven tape, in which the tape is cut in transverse direction and the two ends thereby produced are foldedin one operation, parallel or almost parallel to the cut.

The articles thereby produced have to serve in particular as labels, adapted to be attached to various ready-made clothes or other dressers workpieces by means of a stitching in the folded portion.

In the known process referred to above the folded ends of the cut piece of tape are not positioned in fiat condition against the piece of tape itself, which, however, is desirable for the further treatment (packing and sewing on) of the piece of tape. I

Now, the invention consists in this that the folding of the tape-ends is effected by so pressing each end over the full width and to such an extent into a slot-shaped space of a work table that that end is folded U-like within the slot.

The result thereof is that the folded ends of each piece of tape is pressed flat against the remaining portion of the tape for the reason that the fold is produced in the slot itself. An apparatus for carrying out the novel process includes a work table, a cutting member operating in a direction perpendicular to said table and two folding members located at either side of said cutting member and also operating in a direction perpendicular to said table, said folding members sooperating with corresponding slot-shaped spaces in the work table. According to the invention the distance of each of the folding members cooperating with corresponding slot-shaped length of the path through which the folding member is moved in the slot.

Consequently each cut end of the piece of tape is not pressed into the slot in flat condition but it keeps its U-shape when the folding member is withdrawn from the slot.

In order to produce in the slot a sharp fold one of the lateral walls of each slot-shaped space in the work table may be laterally movable and the folded tape end compressed thereby. In order to increase this effect a heating means may, according to the invention, be located in one lateral wall or in both lateral walls of the slot-shaped space.

The invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example and schematically the essential means for carrying out the process, the position of the work table being horizontal, and a practical embodiment of a machine according to the invention.

Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 show different positions of the cutting and folding means.

Figure 5 is a schematical side-elevation of an operating mechanism.

Figure 6 is a front elevation thereof.

Figure 7 is a side elevation of a machine according to the invention.

Figure 8 is a partial front elevation thereof.

Figure 9 shows a structural detail and Figure 10 shows another detail.

Above a work table I a vertically movable knife 2 is arranged, cooperating with a stationary knife 3 underneath said table. Further there are provided two vertically movable folding members 4, one at either side of the knife 2, and two vertically movable pressure members 5, one at the exterior of each of the folding members.

The work table is provided with three slots 6, l and 8; the central slot 1 offers an opportunity for the passage of the knife 2; the slots 6 and 8 are adapted to cooperate with the folding members 4.

The parts 9 and I0 of the work table are hollow and are internally provided with a (nonillustrated) heating means; the parts II and I2, forming the vertical outer walls of the slots 6 and 8, are laterally movable so that they are adapted to be pressed against the heated walls 9 and 10.

Figure 1 shows the position in which a tape is lying on the work table and the various vertically movable members have been moved downwards to such an extent, that the pressing members 5 will clampingly hold the lint on the table. In the course of the continued downward movement the knife 2 cuts the tape and immediately thereafter the folding members 4 will press the two tape ends at the left and at the right of the cut into the slots 6 and 8 (see Fig. 2).

During the following upward movement the vertically movable members reach the position shown in Figure 3. In this position the members l l and I2 have been moved to the right and to the left respectively and have compressed the tape, folded in U-shape, in each of the slots 6 and 8.

In the final position according to Figure 4 the pressing members 5 also have been removed from the tape and the parts H and I2 have been returned in their original position.

Assuming that the tape is supplied from the left (Fig. 4) then in said final position one cut and folded tape portion (e. g. a label) l3 may be removed from the machine while the end Id of the tape coming from the left has been folded. The operation may then be repeated as indicated in Fig. 1. When applying the process to labels, woven in the shape of a tape, it will be clear that a mark may be provided on the lower side of the tape, whereby it is possible to cut the lint always at the correct place between two labels.

In Figures and 6 the same parts, shown in Figures 1-4, are again shown, however in cooperation with a schematically shown operating mechanism.

The elements 2 (knife) and 4 (folding members) by means of a yoke I3 are together secured to a rod system l5 that by means of an unround disc I 6 and a lever I! is vertically reciprocated.

The pressing members 5 are secured to a lever I9 having its fulcrum at Hand being normally kept down by a spring 2| in a position, in which the pressing members hold the tape on the work table. In the course of the upward movement of the members 2 and 4, however, the lever I9 is moved upwardly by means of a roller 22 adapted to engage a stop Z3 on said lever.

The members H and i2 are mounted on two pivotal levers 2d, 25. Springs 29 serve to keep normally closed the slots 6 and 8. Cams 25, E? on the levers cooperating with rollers 28 on the rod system I5 take care that the slots are always opened in time for the passage of the folding members 4.

The unround disc [3 should of course have such a configuration that during the rotation the various manipulations are always eifected at the proper time.

In the machine according to Figures '7, 8, 9 and a plurality of cam discs are mounted on a driving shaft 39, said cam discs controlling the movement of the various members 2 (the knife), 4

4 (the two folding members), 5 (the two pressing members) and ii and 112 (the two lateral walls of the slot).

The centralcam disc 3! cooperating with the roller 32 is adapted to move the knife 2. To this end the knife is rotatably mounted on a shaft 33 and the knifeholder 34 is extended to form a lever 35 carrying the roller 32. The end 36 of said lever is provided with a pressing piece ti on which is bearing a roller 38. mounted in another double-armed lever having its fulcrum at ii? and being provided at one end with an adjustable pressure screw M. This screw is kept in engagement with a roller 2 attached to a vertically movable slide it acting as a guide means for the two folding members i. The bell crank lever 44 and the opening do serve to normally keep upwards the folding members, outside the slots.

At either side of the cam disc 3i two cam discs 36 are mounted on the driving shaft 3t, said cam discs 46 moving the two pressing members 5 by means of rollers 17, in engagement with said discs, and levers 48. A buffer &9 on each of the levers 48 and bearing against a set of leaf springs 58 serves to normally keep the pressing members 5 in pressure engagement with the work table.

Finally, at either side of the cam discs 46, two cam discs 59 are mounted on the shaft 3!! to move the lateral slot walls H and #2. Each of said cam discs '5! cooperates with a roller 52 on a lever c and 8 This roller is 53 having its fulcrum at 5 3. The end of the lever 53 is constituted by a holder 6H for a slot wall [I and i2 respectively, shown for the sake of clearness in section and hatched (Figure 8). By means of a pressure spring 55, supported in the machine frame, the lever 53 is rotated anticlockwise, i. e. the roller 52 is kept pressed against the cam disc 5! and the slot i2 is kept normally closed (as indicated in Figure 8). A heating element 56 is located in the interior of the movable wall of the slot. This is a modification in comparison with Figures 14, in which the heating element is located within the hollow stationary wall If! of the slot.

As regards the movement of the knife 2 reference is directed to Fig. 9 in which the knife 2 and its holder 3% and the lever 35 are shown separately. In order to ensure that the knife is normally kept lifted in a non-cutting position, a second lever 51 is rigidly connected with the holder 3 2. The end of said second lever 51 is connected to the machine frame by means of a spring 53. Moreover the knife is adapted to perform a rotation about a shaft 60 under the influence of a torsion spring 59 so that the cutting edge is always pressed against the stationary lower knife 3.

I claim:

1. A process for treating a tape comprising cutting said tape transversely and then simultaneously pressing the ends of the tape so cut tl'u'oughout the entire width thereof substantially parallel to the cut into slot-shaped recesses provided in a work table so as to form at each end a folded portion of U-shape in each slot.

2. A machine for treating a tape comprising a work table having slot-shaped recesses therein, a cutting member operating perpendicular to said table, a folding member located at each side of said cutting member and also movable perpendicular to said table, each folding member cooperating with a slot-shaped recess in said table and the distance of each of said folding members from said cutting member being greater than the length of the path of movement of said folding member in its cooperating recess.

I '3. A machine for treating a tape comprising a work table having slot-shaped recesses therein, a cutting member reciprocating perpendicularly to said table, afolding member located at each side of said cutting member and also reciprocating perpendicularly to said table, a clamping member for clamping said tape to said work table located adjacent each folding member and at the said thereof opposite to said cutting member,

said pressing members also being reciprocable perpendicularly to said table so that said tape .work table, a lateral Wall located adjacent each 0.? said recesses and means for laterally moving each wall so that a doubled end of said tape located within a recess may be compressed.

FRANZ GERARD CAREL MARGADANT. 

